Transcript Prestige Forms: Hypercorrection and Self-Reported Linguistic Competence in College Students

Peter Carrillo & Amelia Liggett
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AGE: ____
GENDER: ____
Major/Minor: _________________________________________ (Write “undecided” if unsure)
Year in School:
• Graduate Student Senior Junior Sophomore Freshman (circle one)
Number of languages you speak besides English: ______
Rank your knowledge of Standard English grammar and punctuation: (circle one)
• Below Average / Average / Above Average
How confident are you in your writing ability?
• Unconfident / Confident / Very confident
SURVEY QUESTIONS
Please circle “correct” or “incorrect.” Go with your instinct—circle what you think is correct upon
your first impression.
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1) The congresswomen differed as to who they thought might win. (correct / incorrect)
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2) My boss bought my coworkers and me brand new laptops. (correct / incorrect)
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3) Whom is the recipient? (correct / incorrect)
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4) To Josh and I, Odysseus is the best Epic poem of all time. (correct / incorrect)
 How
and why do students become so
linguistically insecure regarding prestige forms
 How may this pattern be broken?
 Respondents don’t seem to understand the
standard uses of prestige forms.
 Respondents hypercorrect because of the
perceived formality of the prestige forms in
combination with their linguistic insecurity.